ZetaTalk: Scapegoats
Note: written by Jul 15, 1995

Hatred and scapegoating are rift throughout humanity, and in truth, throughout all intelligent species everywhere. Why is it that emotions can ramp up and focus, like
a laser light, at innocents? What could cause men to deliberately harm innocent children? Although others can see that the cause is not just, and the victims not
guilty, the perpetrators are sternly convinced they are doing the right thing. What is going on here, and what is going wrong!

In society many emotions must be hidden, and in many families this is learned young. The babe senses that certain postures get applause, and other postures illicit
rage. Does this eliminate the emotion? It does not. These emotions simply go underground, where they cause many problems as they are not recognized for what
they are. What are these emotions, and why are they unwelcome. In families, cohesive emotions are applauded, and discord is punished. As the father, or father
figure in most cases, is most powerful and dominant, this is the fulcrum where discord is determined. In short, if the dominant father figure makes a statement or a
determination, any challenge to this is deemed discord and is punished. The frustration this genders, particularly in young boys, is buried, but like fires in the
underbrush, the sparks and coals glow with life, waiting to spring up at a later point.

By what logic does a young man, now grown, turn with savagery against innocents simply because decisions in their youth were arbitrary? This is not a decision
made in the heart, as those who scapegoat and form the core of hate groups are not in touch with their feelings toward others. They are in the process of learning
how to suppress feelings toward others, and moving in the direction, if not already arrived, of the Service-to-Self orientation. What then is the motive? It is to
relieve rage, which cannot be directed toward the actual source, perhaps long dead or at least buried in the subconscious, but in any direction that results in an
emotional catharsis. The scapegoat, screaming and bloody or perhaps pleading for mercy and life, is viewed, at least subconsciously, as the father figure or
whomever was dominant and arbitrary in the past. As the true cause of the rage is in fact not addressed, this catharsis is short lived and yet another scapegoat is
sought.